A 36-24-36 Cerebrum: Gendering Video Game Play through Advertising

Sample of research for:

A 36-24-36 Cerebrum: Gendering Video Game Play through Advertising

By Shira Chess

Introduction Until only recently, video games were often understood to be created by and formasculine audiences (Fron et al, 2007; Ray, 2004; Cassell & Jenkins, 1999). Now, in thepast few years, an influx of video games (such as Wii Fit, Brain Age, and Diner Dash)has been increasingly marketed to a demographic previously ignored by the gamingindustry: adult females. As such, there are now more video games created specifically for(and marketed to) women. At the same time though, one does not have to look far to see adivision and gendered hierarchy between traditional (masculine) gamers and newer(feminine) gamers. Advertising is one way where this divisiveness becomes particularlyvisible. At its core, play is marketed differently to men than it is to women, andunderlying these marketing differences are deeper issues of gender and play. In what follows, I will be discussing video game advertising in magazines,showing how video game audiences are becoming simultaneously both broader andnarrower: video game appeals might be made to larger audiences—now often includingmore women. But at the same time, these appeals often narrow the kinds of play thatwomen are authorized to engage in. In order to illustrate this, I use content and semioticanalysis of advertising in two traditional video game magazines, showing how femininityis often excluded or marginalized from traditional gaming. Subsequently, I similarlyanalyze advertising in some non-video game magazines—mostly aimed at adult femaleaudiences, showing specific ways that video games and play have been pitched to womenin recent years.

Gender, Video Games, and Leisure

Much of the previous research on video games and gender has been limited to thequestion, “how do we get little girls to play video games?” Books such as, From Barbieto Mortal Combat (1999) helped to pave the way for discussions of the gendered natureof the video game industry (Cassell & Jenkins, 1999), yet research on young girls wasoften unfairly applied to research on women (Taylor, 2006). In turn, focusing on girlsrather than women (while perhaps more practical when studying play) ultimately ignoresShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 3

the possibility that play habits change through life cycle. Subsequent reports on videogames and gender, both in industry and academia, often result in discussions andassumptions that girls and women alike prefer casual games, social games, or narrativeheavy games (Ray, 2004; Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2000). While these discussions are useful, they do not always account for the culturalaffects of gender (as opposed to the biological effects of sex). Biology is often the focusof video game studies—both in industry and academia. For instance, researchers oftencite differences in cognitive abilities, stimuli, and reflexes (Isbister, 2006) as being theprimary reason why women do not play the games created by an inherently masculineindustry. One recent Stanford study focused on the cognitive effects of rewards in termsof gender differences, concluding that men show more activity in the “mesocorticolimbiccenter” of the brain, which they associate with competition and addiction (Hoeft, et al,2008). This study puts forth the clinical claim that men and boys have more “fun” playingvideo games than women and girls. Recent studies have only begun to critique these issues. T.L. Taylor (2008,forthcoming) suggests that future studies on gender and games should move away fromthis biological focus and take gender and culture more deeply into account. Similarly, theLudica Group (a collective of gender game researchers) has begun focusing on some ofthe cultural logic surrounding varying tastes in video games (Fron, et al, 2007a), and hasdiscussed the hegemonies of masculine play (Fron, et al, 2007b). Royse et al (2007)begins to break older habits used in gender and video game studies by dividing itsparticipants into three categories: power gamers, non-gamers, and moderate gamers.Thus, while several researchers have begun to open new avenues for ways to understandgender and video games, my study uniquely examines themes of productivity in gamesaimed at women, which track back to larger issues of gender and play. At the same time,when studying cultural affect, it is vital to consider media which might influence playhabits, such as advertising. Another major component to factor into gender and video game studies iswomen’s leisure. Since the late 1980s, researchers have discussed women’s leisure habitsas being easily interruptible (Modleski, 1988), done in quick snippets of time, and morefamily-oriented than personally fulfilling (Deem, 1987). As such, women’s leisure isShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 4

often less absorbing and more about filling time and keeping other family membersentertained. Later, I illustrate how these patterns are reinforced in video game advertisingaimed at women audiences. Ultimately, I argue that the emergence of video games forwomen has reinforced these pre-existing themes of women’s leisure.

Gender and Advertising

Advertising stands at a precarious place in our culture. On one hand, itexemplifies some of the basest qualities of popular culture, using manipulativepropaganda techniques. From this standpoint, it is easy to be dismissive of advertising asvacuous and shallow. But these disingenuous techniques hold a larger role in our society.For instance, many Marxist critiques of advertising suggest that it fosters false ideologiesand constructs desires that might not have existed otherwise (Leiss, et al, 1997). In asimilarly cynical vein, postmodern critiques suggest that advertising style and meaninghas been injected and diluted into all forms of culture. Baudrillard contends that,“Currently, the most interesting aspect of advertising is its disappearance, its dilution as aspecific form, or even as a medium” (1984/1990, p. 90). Thus, if Baudrillard’s contentionis true, it would seem foolhardy to dismiss a cultural form that currently affects so manyother cultural artifacts. What all of this means is that we can often understand advertisingas a barometer of our culture. According to William Leiss, et al (1997): Regarded individually and superficially, advertisements promote goods and services. Looked at in depth and as a whole, the ways in which messages are presented in advertising reach deeply into our most serious concerns: interpersonal and family relations, the sense of happiness and contentment, sex roles and stereotyping, the uses of affluence, the fading away of older cultural traditions, influences on younger generations, […] and many others. (p. 1)

Given this assertion, and bearing in mind the Marxist and Postmodern critiquesmentioned above, it seems naive to disregard advertising as simply shallow or artless:advertising messages show the trends, beliefs, and ideologies of a culture. Gender is often surprisingly unrepresented in studies of advertising. ErvingGoffman’s Gender Advertisements (1976/1979) was one of the first texts to consider howgender is portrayed in advertising and how it complies with already understood societalShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 5

stereotypes about gender. In this book, Goffman looks at how positioning and facialexpressions manifest into portrayals of subordination and lower social status of womenthrough everyday advertising. He is primarily concerned with ritual and how it is used tocreate and reproduce gender expectations. Goffman uses several categories to illustrateways that women show subordination in advertising, including the relative size of theman and woman, the use of a “feminine touch”, function ranking between peopleportrayed, ritualized subordination, and licensed withdrawal. Later, I will discuss thesecategories in more depth, and use them to illustrate how women are portrayed andmarginalized in typical video game advertisements. Since Goffman’s seminal book, others have expanded on some typicalconstructions of gender in advertising. Diane Barthel’s Putting on Appearances: Genderand Advertising (1988) discusses how the “beauty role” is constructed throughadvertising. Barthel goes significantly deeper than Goffman, discussing more feministimplications of gender constructions in advertisements. For example, in advertisementsaimed at women, she shows how the “voice of authority” is used to put feminineaudiences in the position of the child, through various authority figures (older women,scientists, celebrities, or other experts). Thus, rather than showing just how women areportrayed (such as Goffman does) Barthel manages to draw a fuller picture of howspecific appeals are made to women to sell them both products and self-images. Similarly, in Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media(1994), Susan Douglas writes about how the mass media has sold certain images (bothempowering and disempowering) to women. She explains that often advertising in recentyears have twisted notions of women’s liberation into excuses for narcissism and workingon self appearances. She explains: Women’s liberation became equated with women’s ability to do whatever they wanted for themselves, whenever they wanted, no matter what the expense. These ads were geared to the women who had made it in the world, or who hoped she would, and the message was reward yourself, you deserve it. (p. 246)

Advertising, per Douglas, provides a means of simultaneously selling products and

necessarily deliberate, they do help to reaffirm stereotypes and beliefs that are already atplay in our culture. In their essay “The Hegemony of Play” the Ludica Group (Fron, et al, 2007b)briefly discusses some of issues with video game advertising, many of which I will beelaborating on later in this essay. The Ludica Group explains, “Many videogameadvertisements tend to disenfranchise and alienate women, further contributing to theself-fulfilling prophecy that ‘women don’t play games’” (p. 316). In this essay, theLudica Group also discusses Nintendo setting their sights on a different kind of gamer(women), in their more recent advertising campaigns, and that this represents signs of“subtle but tectonic shifts.” While, admittedly, the advertising campaigns that I discuss inthe following are targeted at women audiences, I would argue that the generalizations andessentializations about feminine play at the heart of these advertisements do notnecessarily escape the “hegemonies of play”, entirely. I argue that gender, advertising, and ideologies are all part of an inseparable andsymbiotic relationship, where advertising very often reinforces and reaffirms gender rolesand stereotypes already a part of dominant ideologies. In as much as products are sold toaudiences, the same advertisements are also often reinforcing normative gender rolesalready present in the products and culture they are from. In what follows, I focus on howvideo game advertisements are punctuated with gender stereotypes. Alternately I alsoexplore advertisements and campaigns specifically for the Nintendo DS and the NintendoWii and some of the ways they have been specifically marketed towards women.

Typical Video Game Magazine Advertisements

Methodologies In a survey I conducted of Play Magazine and Game Informer Magazine—twopopular video game magazines—from July 2006 through June 2007. Game Informer hada total of 395 advertisements and Play had a total of 274 advertisements throughout thecourse of the year (See Table 1). Of the advertisements for video games (59% of the totalads in Game Informer and 64% of the total ads in Play), 32% of the video gameadvertisements in Game Informer had any images of women, while 57% of theadvertisements in Play did. Many of these advertisements ran several times (and betweenShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 7

magazines) and ultimately there were a total of 93 distinct advertisements over the courseof the year that had any women in them (in major or minor roles). Because this includedcharacters in advertisements that were in minor roles (such as part of small screen shots,characters that were significantly smaller, less lighted, more abstractly drawn, or were notthe overall visual focus of the page) it was necessary to determine how many of theseadvertisements had women or girl characters in major roles, to fairly determine howwomen were depicted in these advertisements. By ruling out women and girls in screenshots, who were significantly smaller, or more abstractly drawn, I determined that therewere a total of 47 distinct advertisements over the course of the year, in both magazines,that featured female characters in major roles. Using Goffman’s criteria in Gender Advertisements, I studied each of theseadvertisements to determine several factors in how female characters were depicted: theirfacial expressions, eye positioning, “feminine touch”, and the potential of powerfulnessdepicted through size, stance, relative positioning, function ranking, and “licensedwithdrawal”1, as well as my own factors which include looking clothing and whether thewoman shown was playing the game or a character in it (see Table 2). One of the moststriking things is that despite being written in the 1970s, Goffman’s text still can be usedto describe many advertisements today. While several of the advertisements had morethan one female character (making some of these things more difficult to assess), Iattempted to factor all of these things into my findings. In what follows I will give a briefdescription of some of my findings over the year’s worth of magazines, and then usesemiotic analysis to analyze some specific advertisements more carefully. It is alsoimportant to note, here, that my analysis is not of the games themselves—what interestsme here is not how women are depicted in video games, but rather, how they arepresented to readers. By illustrating this, it becomes easier to show how women might bemarginalized by the advertisements in typical video game advertising, and how this mightaffect purchase and play of these video games. In addition to using Goffman’s categories, I also use semiotic analysis to morethoroughly analyze a few specific advertisements. In Mythologies (1957/1972) RolandBarthes discusses the value of using semiotic analysis to better understand cultural myths

1 I will later explain the Goffman categories in more detail.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 8

—including advertising. Per Barthes, a myth is a type of speech which is a “mode of

signification” (p. 109) for a culture. As such, he explains how one can use semioticanalysis—the study of sign and sign systems—to decode cultural mythologies. Barthesdescribes the process of decoding mythologies into sign systems as part of a “tri-dimensional pattern”: the signifier, the signified, and the sign. Using an example offlowers, Barthes explains: Take a bunch of roses: I use it to signify my passion. Do we have here, then, only a signifier and a signified, the roses and my passion? Not even that: to put it accurately, there are here only ‘passionified’ roses. But on the plane of analysis, we do have three terms, for these roses weighted with passion perfectly and correctly allow themselves to be decomposed into roses and passion: the former and the latter existed before uniting and forming this third object, which is the sign.” (p. 113) [emphasis his]

The sign, signifier, and signified can be used as a roadmap to understand imagery andtext in any cultural mythology, including advertisements. Thus, one can use Barthes’system of semiotic analysis to decode cultural myths by looking at many of the smallercomponents and examining them as sign systems.

Video Game Magazine Advertisement Analysis

Two factors that play a large role in Goffman’s analysis of gender in advertisingare facial expressions and eye positions (where the subject is looking). These, hecontends, play a role in how women and femininity are depicted. Of facial expressions,Goffman explains that women often are seen smiling and wearing non-threatening facialexpressions: “Smiles, it can be argued, often function as ritualistic mollifiers, signalingthat nothing agonistic is intended or invited, that the meaning of the other’s act has beenunderstood and found acceptable, that, indeed, the other is approved and appreciated” (p.48). This is the case with many of the women depicted in the video game advertisementsthat were smiling or smirking in some way: in 28% of the advertisements one or all of thefemale characters depicted were smirking or smiling (see Table 2). Thus, even the morepowerful figures in these advertisements are often portrayed as dependent and ultimatelypowerless.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 9

Regarding the position and eye line of the subject Goffman explains, “Thelowering of the head presumably withdraws attention from the scene at hand, dependencyentailed and indicated thereby. The gain is that one’s feelings will be momentarilyconcealed—although, of course, not the fact that one is attempting such concealment […]Mere aversion of the eyes can apparently serve similarly” (p. 63). It’s striking that 66%of the advertisements that featured feminine characters in Play and Game Informer hadwomen or girls with averted eyes, or who were not looking directly ahead—most eitherlowered or off to the side (see Table 2). Another major factor that Goffman refers to is “licensed withdrawal.” Heexplains, “Women more than men, it seems, are pictured engaged in involvements whichremove them psychologically from the social situation at large, leaving them unorientedin it and to it, and presumably therefore, dependent on the protectiveness and goodwill ofothers who (or might come to be) present” (p. 57). In addition to the aforementioned coysmiles and off-screen glances, licensed withdrawal often is portrayed through placing ahand on or near the mouth or body to indicate an emotional response. At the same time,as Goffman noted, licensed withdrawal connotes dependence. In the advertisements inPlay and Game Informer, 66% had women or girls who displayed licensed withdrawal(see Table 2). In Gender Advertisements, Goffman also discusses how positioning on the page,relative size, and function ranking all play a large role in how gender is constructed inadvertisements. According to Goffman, women are generally depicted both as smallerthan men, both height and width and in ways that their function ranking is physicallyvisible. Height and size of the women and girls varied considerably, but in 21% of theadvertisements women or girls were smaller than then men. In 34% of theadvertisements, the women were positioned behind the men. Goffman also discusses the use of hands or the “feminine touch.” Goffmanexplains that, “Women, more than men, are pictured using their fingers and hands to tracethe outlines of an object or to cradle it or to caress its surface (the latter sometimes underthe guise of guiding it), or to effect a ‘just barely touch’ of the kind that might besignificant between two electrically charged bodies” (p. 29). While on one hand there isa utilitarian purpose to holding weapons in a game where there is fighting, the use ofShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 10

hands, and the specificity of seeing ungloved fingers in each of these ads is telling. Thefeminine character in these advertisements are not so much fighting as they aredisplaying a weapon in a way that gives it the sexual affect described by Goffman. 57%percent of the advertisements that had women in them were either touching themselves,displaying their hands, touching weapons, or touching others (see Table 2). Other factors that I analyzed that were not part of Goffman’s analysis (but areshown in Table 2) were how revealing the female character’s clothing is, and whether theperson depicted was a player or a game character. 66% of the women and girls werewearing sexually provocative or revealing clothing—a statistic which is generallyunsurprising for the genre. Additionally, only 1% of the women and girls depicted in theadvertisements were shown as players rather than in-game characters. Unto itself, thisnumber is not surprising—the majority of characters in video game magazinesadvertisements tend to focus more on game characters than on players. This statisticbecomes far more compelling when compared to some of the advertisements discussed inthe second half of this study—almost all of the advertisements in women’s magazinesshowed players rather than in-game characters. Ultimately, these advertisements help to construct a feminine marginalization inthe typical video game world. This marginalization, I argue, reflects who is beingauthorized to play video games. In the following, I analyze specific advertisements that Ifeel highlight this feminine marginalization. It is my contention that not only do thefollowing advertisements help to marginalize potential women players who might happenupon them, they also create an image that women and girls do not belong in this overallplayscape. While all games are not aimed solely at masculine audiences, the fact that thetwo magazines that I reviewed which both specialized in video game topics have so manyadvertisements that essentialize or ignore femininity illustrates how overwhelminglymarginalized women and girls are in the video game industry. The first advertisement is for the game Lzuna, (see Figure 1). The ad, whichappeared in several months of Play Magazine in 2007, features the title character, alone,holding a sword over her shoulder. The advertisement’s text brags, “Finally, a DungeonRPG strong enough for a man… but played as a hot CHICK.” This headline, of course, isa play on the popular deodorant advertisement (“Strong enough for a man but made for aShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 11

woman”). The difference between the original deodorant advertisement and theadvertisement for Lzuna is the distinction between “made for” and “played as”: in no waydoes this advertisement infer that anyone but a man is meant to “play as” this “hotCHICK.” The image of the woman to the left of the text shows the reader the “hotCHICK” they are able to play as. Lzuna’s is presented as sexually attractive, with herface partially hidden by hair, and profiled in the aforementioned sense of licensedwithdrawal. Her eyes are also averted downward. Lzuna’s pose is almost prostitute-like:most of her body is visible and her hip, pointed outward, displays her curves and bare leg.She holds a very long sword over one shoulder (her arm, in part, hiding her face), herfingers only lightly grazing the sword handle. Her arms reaching upwards also manage todisplay a profile of her (clothed) breasts for the audience. Despite being more clothedthan the characters in many other video game advertisements, she wears fishnet sleeves—again an inference of prostitution. Lzuna has a slight smile on her face, and her eyes arefocused off in the distance—a facial expression of licensed withdrawal—once again, perGoffman, showing her as ultimately powerless. For a character that is “strong enough fora man,” Lzuna is hardly menacing. The text below the headline, though, is even more telling of how thisadvertisement might marginalize feminine video game players. It explains, “You have theprivilege of controlling the cutest ninja ever, lzuna (that’s me!), through all thesedifferent dungeons. Customize my weapons and unleash devastating ninja spells todestroy monsters and score major treasure. Let’s face it, I need the cash” (emphasis,mine). The word “controlling” is key here. The potential player is not being told they canrole-play as a feminine character, but rather as advertised in the headline, that they cancontrol a “hot chick,” a decidedly masculine phrase for woman. Because it has alreadybeen established that the game is “strong enough for a man” it is clear that this“controlling” is not to be done by a female player, but is expected to be done by a male.Further, the final line (“Let’s face it, I need the cash”) reinforces this control theme withthe hint of prostitution: by spending money on the game the player is able to control theactions of “the cutest ninja ever.” Thus, this advertisement reinforces a notion thatfeminine players have a limited role in the gaming world, and are only controllableavatars.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 12

The second advertisement (Figure 2) is not for a specific game, but for thePlaystation Portable (PSP) system, which appeared in September 2006 of Game InformerMagazine. This advertisement, somewhat similarly to Lzuna allows game play to providea substitute for desire and sexuality. In this advertisement, a small diorama stage sets the“PSP Theater” wherein two finger puppets are playing the roles of Romeo and Juliet. TheJuliet character, on a makeshift balcony, declares the expected, “Romeo, Romeo, whereart thou Romeo?” But rather than the obligatory rejoinder, Romeo scoffs, “I am busyplaying PSP Greatest Hits for $19.99, so call someone else’s name like Frank orsomething.” This advertisement is compelling on several levels—first because of the waythe feminine figure (finger) is marginalized from video game play both physically andpsychologically. The Juliet character is pleading for romance in an entirely essentializingway—wearing all white and claiming a somewhat chaste desire. The male character notonly dismisses her by verbally professing his love for PSP games (over her love), but byphysically showing desire towards the games rather than the heteronormative scenariothat has been presented to him. As can be seen in the advertisement, because the Romeofinger is being played with a Thumb, half of a pointer finger juts out below him, arguablyshowing a simulated erection—not towards Juliet, but rather, towards the images of thegames. These games, on puppet-like popsicle sticks (continuing the makeshift theatertheme) embody a third character—technological play. Given the masculine finger’ssimulated erection, romantic and heterosexual desire is thus being replaced by videogame play and technological desire. While the feminine character does not necessarily embody all of the previouslymentioned Goffman themes (we are unable to glean her facial expression, and “femininetouch” is a useless concept for a finger puppet), her physical separation from both themasculine finger puppet and the games is indicative of both function ranking (she is apartfrom the play, on a balcony) as well as licensed withdrawal. The reader/viewer is beingshown that femininity has a specific role (or lack of role) within video game play. The advertisement for Viva Piñata, (Figure 3) does not use sexuality in referenceto video game play, but instead presents an overall feminine disdain for unstructuredplay. The advertisement for the virtual piñata game shows a family in the aftermath of abirthday party where a piñata game has presumably gotten out of hand. A boy isShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 13

removing his blindfold and has lowered the piñata stick, and a large hole in the fence is inthe shape of an escaped piñata. The center of a birthday cake has been trampled throughdue to the renegade piñata. The boy who has presumably hit the piñata to its current statelooks slightly confused (likely due to needing to remove his blindfold). A mother figurestands to the right of a picnic table, her head turned towards the broken fence (and awayfrom the camera) with one hand on her chest and the other serving fruit punch from apitcher. The two girls standing at opposite ends of the table both have physical or facialexpressions of panic: one is screaming with her hands upward, and the other one issimilarly holding her hands in the air with her fists closed (her back, like the mother isturned to the camera). Two other masculine figures—a father and another boy, standlooking out of the fence, while both seem mildly curious and surprised, neither seemnearly as hysterical or shocked as the female characters do. The advertisement is striking because other than the smaller text on the lower halfof the page (and the fact that it was in a video game magazine) one would not necessarilyordinarily assume that this advertisement was for a video game. In fact, the play that isbeing represented is not part of newer play technologies, but rather, older (and family-oriented) kinds of play. But just as with the advertisements that are more clearly for videogames, femininity is being marginalized in this playscape. Thus, while it was a boy whospun the piñata out of control, and men who are calmly assessing the situation, thewomen and girls are the ones reacting aversely towards the play gone awry: the girls arepresented hysterically and the mother is withdrawn, holding her hand to her chest. Onceagain, even in older forms of play, this advertisement is suggesting that women and girlsare not equipped for the unexpected mayhem that play might produce.

Advertising Aimed at Feminine Audiences

The next part of this chapter looks at an entirely different kind of video gameadvertising—advertising not aimed at traditional gamers (as was seen in Play and GameInformer) but those which have been aimed specifically at women audiences. Theseadvertisements primarily have been for one of two newer Nintendo systems: the handheldgaming system the Nintendo DS Lite, and the home console system the Nintendo Wii.Since approximately Spring 2006, Nintendo has begun advertising these systems inShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 14

venues where women might encounter them. The following section does not analyze thespecific games in detail, but rather, analyzes ways that these games are advertised andsold to this new demographic. As I did with the previous advertisements that I discussed,I will be looking at how advertising constructs images of feminine play. Many of theadvertisements that I will be discussing do not necessarily highlight the playful potentialof the video games they are promoting, but rather their productivity as well as for theirability to supposedly bring families closer together.

Methodologies In this section I review magazine advertising that specifically targets feminineaudiences. All of the advertising that I discuss appeared between May 2006 and August2008. Obviously, there are several differences, methodologically, with how I dealt withthis material as opposed to the video game magazine advertising I analyzed in the firstpart of this study. Because there were considerably fewer video game advertisements innon-video game magazines, I decided that it was necessary to encompass a larger timeperiod in my study—a total of 28 months. The months selected were not arbitrary—mystudy begins a month before the release of the Nintendo DS Lite (when it is first beingmarketed to feminine audiences), through the release of the Nintendo Wii, up until therelease of the Wii Fit game. Because advertising for video games were sporadic (andoften there was not more than one advertisement for a video game or video game systemper month) as well as redundant (several ads ran in several magazines) statistic resultsand percentages would not necessarily hold the same relevance as they did in Table 2.Table 3, instead, illustrates the 28 month spread of video game advertisements inmagazines, by platform. While time and resources limited the number of magazines I researched for videogame advertising, I tried to get a cross-section which included women’s and men’sgeneral interest magazine, as well as magazines that have more gender neutral audiences.I charted video game advertisements in nine popular magazines2 (see Table 3) notingboth full page advertisements as well as small promotional ads that were on larger pages2 The magazines I reviewed were Real Simple Magazine, Oprah Magazine, People Magazine,Good Housekeeping, Martha Stewart Living, Redbook, Esquire, Wired Magazine,, and TimeMagzine.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 15

with several other featured items of the month (in Table 3 referred to as “promo” ads). Idid not include actual magazine articles in this study, and also did not includeadvertisements for video game systems that were specifically for children or babies (suchas the V-Flash system) as I did not feel this was relevant to my study3. While,unfortunately, this does not provide a fully comprehensive tally of every time everyadvertisement appeared in any magazine, I feel fairly confident that my cross-sectioncovers the majority of the major Nintendo advertising campaigns (aimed at thisdemographic) over this time period, and that additional magazines would have beenmostly redundant. Finally, readers might note that this study primarily focuses on Nintendoproducts. This is not brand preference on my part, but rather because very fewadvertisements appeared for non-Nintendo games and products in magazines aimed atwomen (Wired had other consoles and games, but these advertisements were, other thanwhen noted, similar to the game advertisements in Play and Game Informer). Thus, thefew incidences of advertisements for other video game systems appeared as part ofpullouts or larger advertisements for stores such as Target and Wal-Mart. Generally,these advertisements were suggesting gaming systems as family gifts, and not about thewomen readers, themselves, playing games (see Table 3).

Nintendo DS Lite: Doing Something with Your Nothing

The Nintendo DS (standing for Dual Screen) was unusually positioned to enter amore feminized video game market from its inception. The DS Lite, released in June of2006, is a handheld (portable) game system with two screens: the upper screen has visualoutput, while the lower has a touch screen which can be manipulated with a built-instylus. The small system was quickly positioned by Nintendo as a potential “accessory”and one Nintendo executive was quoted in a news article saying, “It definitely should bepart of every purse […] you have your cellphone, your iPod, and your DS Lite” (Harris p.F15). Thus, from its inception, the DS Lite began to use various marketing methods totarget feminine audiences. The DS Lite entered the market with the slogan, “Lighter,3 Because I am specifically studying women’s play and video games that are aimed at women,educational games or game systems that are meant solely for children were tangential to myresearch.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 16

Brighter” and was immediately advertised in a variety of magazines, on billboards in

commuter zones, and on television commercial spots: each showing women playing withthe handheld game system (Harris, p. F15). What is particularly compelling about theseadvertising campaigns is that, for the most part, they did not always attempt to sell “play”to these new feminine consumers. Instead, a theme of productivity through leisurebecame a constant theme throughout many of the Nintendo DS Lite advertisements—generally through either self improvement games or so-called “casual games4”. One of the more compelling examples of this productivity was part of a “DoSomething With Your Nothing” advertisement slogan that appeared in DS advertisementsin several women’s magazines. One such advertisement (Figure 4) which appeared in theSeptember 2006 issue of Oprah Magazine, shows three people—two women and oneman—in a waiting room. One of the women is playing with a Nintendo DS (and smiling)while the other man and the woman are slumped over in their seats, clearly bored whilewaiting to be called. The advertisement’s main text suggests, “The average wait in adoctor’s office is 23.4 minutes. Do something with your nothing.” The advertisement isclearly targeting a feminine readership, and suggesting a proper time and place for videogame play. While the woman playing the video game is the focus of the ad (wearing amuch brighter red than the other two people in the waiting room), the other woman is asecondary focus—slumped over the side of her seat, and decidedly less happy than thewoman who is playing. The man is set back further than the two women in thisadvertisement, and is more about background: the advertisement is highlighting thewomen. Similarly, another advertisement in this campaign (Figure 5) shows three peoplestanding at a bus stop—two men and a woman—and this time a man who is happilyplaying with his Nintendo DS, while the other two are slumped over the sides of the busstop. This ad suggests, “The average wait for a city bus is 12.8 minutes. Do somethingwith your nothing.” While this advertisement does not show the woman playing the DS,it is the woman the advertisement is speaking to. The woman is more well-lit than theother characters in the advertisement and is the only person standing—and is therefore

4 Casual games are games that are low in narrative, can be played for very short snippets of time,and are easy to learn.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 17

one of the primary focal points. Like the other advertisement, the two men are nowpositioned behind the one woman who is the person situated closest to the reader.Arguably, it is her that the advertisement is making the appeal to “do something with[her] nothing.” Both of the advertisements are telling about the kind of play that had begun to bepromoted to women during the summer of 2006. These advertisements are targeting non-playing woman—not because of the value and importance of play but rather to fill allavailable time. Each of the women in the advertisements are chastised to “do somethingwith [their] nothing” (as are those women who are reading the magazine). Theseadvertisements are not necessarily highlighting the value of play, but rather insist on thevalue of productivity: all time must be spent in some productive way. Thus, theseadvertisements are some of the first to set an important trend where video games are notadvertised to women for their play-potential but for their value as ways to use up anyexcess time in a woman’s schedule. Specific Nintendo DS games have also been advertised similarly, reinforcinggendered themes and pitching productivity as a goal for play. A perfect example of thiswas for two advertisements for the brain improvement game Brain Age: Train YourBrain in Minutes a Day which ran in May and June of 2006 in both men’s and women’smagazines. The first advertisement (Figure 6) appeared in magazines including RealSimple, Oprah Magazine, and People Magazine. The second advertisement (Figure 7)appeared in magazines including Wired Magazine and Time Magazine. As a contrast, thetwo ads are compelling both for their similarities and their vast differences. Both advertisements are structured like an advertorial (giving the impression ofbeing more of an informational magazine article than an advertisement). Both have aperson (one a woman and one a man) playing the game in the left hand corner of the ad.The advertising copy is structured similarly on both pages, and in some places theadvertising copy is identical in both advertisements. It is the similarities of these ads thatmake the highly gendered differences so compelling, highlighting how games aremarketed differently to men and women. Both advertisements are composed of almost equal amounts of image and text. Inthese advertisements, the text is key to understanding how gendered play is constructed.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 18

The title of the masculine advertisement (in all caps) reads, “CAN YOU USE A VIDEOGAME TO REWIRE YOUR BRAIN?” which suggests a highly technologically focusedmessage. Written in all-caps, the text is yelling at the audience. Conversely, the feminineheadline uses a subtler and softer statement (not a question): “What the Japanese havediscovered about the fountain of youth.” While both headlines suggest self improvement,the headline for the advertisement with the woman immediately infers beauty, self care,and health, while the masculine advertisement automatically discusses video games,technology, and the brain. It is significant to note that the phrase “video game” is neverused at all in the feminine version of the advertisement. In effect, the feminine ad goes on to suggest that taking care of one’s brain is partof the daily beauty regimen that all women should be partaking in. At one point itconcludes that “A 36-24-36 cerebrum is just a few exercises away.” This striking phrasemanages to not only equate mental fitness to physical fitness, but does so by using sexistimagery to describe an “ideal” of feminine beauty. The masculine advertisement,conversely, suggests that playing this game might help them become more competitivewith their co-workers. Both advertisements preach a kind of productivity (a “dosomething with your nothing,” if you will) but the feminine implications of health andbeauty suggests more about self-maintenance, while the masculine advertisementsuggests a more playful form of agonism—similar to typical video game advertising. Visually these advertisements reinforce what their text says outright: that play andtechnology is a masculine domain that can only be entered into by women under theguise of beauty and self-care productivity. Coloring is a key factor in how theseadvertisements are constructed. Both in the masculine and feminine advertisements theheads of the models have light attached to them—the man’s head is lit up like it is wiredwith circuitry, while the woman’s head produces a haloed effect. There is a harder lightagainst the darker page in the masculine ad, making it appear more serious—and moregame-like. Conversely, the softness of the feminine ad allows it to appear non-threatening—it is the head and face, rather than the brain that is being stressed in this advertisement.This use of coloring, light, and darkness in both ads helps to reinforce the messages eachadvertisement is attempting to convey.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 19

How the models are positioned in the advertisements also helps to reinforce theirmessages. While both models are featured in profile, the woman’s head is lookingslightly downward at the DS, while the man’s head and eyes are looking up at thetechnology he’s reaching for with his arm. The positioning of each model’s head evokesGoffman’s discussion on “the ritual of subordination.” He explains, “A classic stereotypeof deference is that of lowering oneself physically in some form or other of prostration.Correspondingly, holding the body erect and the head high is stereotypically a mark ofunashamedness, superiority, and disdain” (p. 40). While the advertisements each onlyfeature one person, the relative positioning of each is compelling. The man’s bodyimplies the “unashamedness and superiority” suggested by Goffman, while the woman’sis lowered implying deference. The woman is cradling the Nintendo DS in her hand,which evokes Goffman’s previous discussion of the “feminine touch. Alternately, theplacement of the man’s hand relative to the Nintendo DS emphasizes the technologymore than the human. In this version of the ad, the technology is suspended in midair,with the man’s hand (and stylus) reaching up to it. The man does not appear to bethreatened by the mid-air technology; although by looking up at it he is shown asdominated by the Nintendo DS. The floating Nintendo ultimately gives the masculine ada futuristic tone: he is looking upward at the technology of the future, and the technologyis suspended in air in an impossible way. On one hand, the man’s positioning shows himas dominated by the DS, while the woman is the dominant figure in her advertisement.Alternately, though, interpretations of these positions are far from straight-forward. Ineffect, the man is allowed to be challenged by a superior technology, while the woman isshown dominating it as though it were an older technology (a book). In effect, theseplacements presume and attempt to forecast an audience response based on stereotypinggender and technology.

Nintendo Wii: Gender and Family Play Time

While the Nintendo DS uses productivity and practicality to convince feminineaudiences to play more, advertising campaigns for the Nintendo Wii use a differentShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 20

technique. The Nintendo Wii was released in November 2006 as a entirely new kind ofgaming system. Instead of using typical joysticks and game controllers, this system uses aWii remote and motion sensors so that the player’s movements are directly mimicked byon-screen play. Thus, when playing a tennis game, the player must swing the Wii remotelike a racket, and other games have similarly intuitive controls. By changing the interfaceof the typical console video game system, many felt that Nintendo was trying to appeal toa larger, non-gamer market, including a more feminine audience (Shields, 2008). While not all Wii campaigns are aimed at women, I will show how the ones thatare targeted at feminine audiences all use a specific theme: the use of play to bring thefamily together. These advertisements suggest that playing the Wii with one’s family isproductive, fun, and will garner love from all family members. Rather than promotingplay as singular “me” time or time fillers as the advertisements for the Nintendo DS did,these advertisements suggest family Wii-time as a means of closing generational gaps. In many ways, this campaign resembles some of the methods that have been usedto market food to women. In Food is Love: Advertising and Gender Roles in ModernAmerica (2006), Katherine Parkin discusses how the advertising of food was used to inferfamily values, and often to create bonds between family members. She writes: Advertisers wanted consumers to believe that their food products had the ability to create connections and continuity between the perceived constancy of the past and the chaos of the present. Moreover, they wanted women to assume responsibility for creating traditions in their family’s history” (p. 44).

Thus, while there are several distinctions between food advertising and advertising forthe Wii gaming system, both use similar tactics to suggest that the use of the product willcreate memories, love, and the togetherness of traditional family values. In effect, theseNintendo Wii campaigns have attempted to suggest that play is love. According to Margaret Hofer (2003), the suggestion that game play reinforcesfamily values began with game manufacturers in the late 1800s. She explains that acatalogue for McLoughlin Brothers in 1895 suggests: Games are a necessity in every family, and parents should see to it that their children are well supplied with them. They not only amuse, but serve to instruct and educate them. They tend to make happy firesides, and keep childrenShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 21

at home instead of compelling them to seek amusement

away from the family circle. (p. 53)

Slightly updated for current times, Nintendo in their attempts to market their gamesystem to women, uses similar advertising tactics that suggest that the perfect family canbe created through community play. While this, unto itself, is certainly not a problem itessentializes feminine play to productive play, and legitimizes it by suggesting thatplaying with one’s family is one of the only acceptable forms of feminine play. Several advertisements for the Wii (both those that were aimed at feminineaudiences and those that were not) used the slogan “Wii would like to play.” To beginwith, the Wii/we pun is one that is used consistently through several of the earlyNintendo Wii advertising campaigns and alludes to a “community” image promoted bythe console system. Figure 8 shows an early advertisement (which ran in GoodHousekeeping in April 2007) that similarly uses the commercial slogan. “Wii would liketo play,” does not infer the old image of the console gaming system where one or twopeople sit silently in front of a television—it suggests community and ultimately manypeople playing together. The multigenerational themes that attempt to combine older family values withyounger more technology-savvy generations harkens back to what Parkin writes in Foodis Love and Hofer infers with the 19th century themes of family play. According to theadvertisement in Figure 8, the Nintendo Wii is, “[…] a way for the whole family to findsome common ground—and you know how far that can get you with your kids. Maybeit’s time to seal up that generation gap once and for all.” Thus, the magazine advertisingfor the Wii is offering their product as a way to create family community through play.By purchasing a Nintendo Wii, the advertisement suggests, the family can reconnectthrough traditional values. In summer 2007, Wii launched the “My Wii story” advertising campaign.Through the Nintendo web site http://www.mywiistory.com5, people were invited towrite in stories about the transformative powers of the Nintendo Wii and how it hashelped their lives and families. While both sexes wrote in to My Wii Story, the majorityof the submissions were made by women.

5 This web site is no longer active, and is currently listed as “under construction.”Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 22

Several selected stories were turned into magazine advertisements—often

appearing in women’s special interest magazines and all written by women players. Ineffect, these advertisements are not necessarily promoting that women play more, butrather, that they use play as a means of connecting their families (and connecting withtheir families). Thus, while the theme of these ads is not quite the same as the “Dosomething with your nothing” theme of the Nintendo DS advertisements, there is still adecidedly productive theme embedded in them. In large part, these advertisements use anecdotes and personal experience as toolsof persuasion. Figures 9 shows one of the My Wii Story posts that became a magazineadvertisement (and ran in Martha Stewart: Living in September 2007 and February2008). All of the My Wii Stories in magazines start off with a testimonial quote aboutwhat they like about the Wii gaming system. Below each of these testimonial quotes is awoman’s signature—a personal advocacy of the product. The advertisement in Figure 9 uses the aforementioned Play is Love theme withinthe testimonial of the My Wii Story author, Nancy Ponthier. In this testimonial, Wii playis even more directly associated with family togetherness—the main picture shows amother playfully hugging her son, while negotiating the Wii remote. Her headline quotesays, “It’s the first video game I’ve really enjoyed playing.” This advertisement likeother My Wii Stories draws a sharp distinction between “typical” video games and theNintendo Wii system. Nancy Ponthier’s testimonial continues: I’ve never been a fan of video games. But Wii is so interactive and gets everyone involved. We really like playing together as a family, so we quickly moved it from my son’s room to the living room. We even like making Mii characters together. They’re funny and we get a kick out of describing each other. I took a crack at making my own Mii. Then my kids told me it wasn’t “pretty enough” and made it better. I thought that was sweet. They were just so happy I was interested in a video game.

In addition to the Play is Love theme that Nancy Ponthier is implying with this story thechildren recreating her Mii to make it “prettier” reinforces the theme that a Nintendo Wiiwill bring the family closer. In effect the causal statement, “I thought that was sweet.They were just so happy I was interested in a video game” implies that her children mightShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 23

love her slightly more for playing video games. Like the other Wii stories, this oneworks to downplay some of its play aspects—describing it in ways that set it apart fromother video game systems. The headline states this upfront with, “It’s the first video gameI’ve really enjoyed playing.” By creating a sharp distinction between typical video gameplay and Wii play, the advertisement allows women to see the game system differently.Other My Wii Stories printed in magazines carry very similar themes that essentializefeminine play and turn it into family play. Women’s play, thus, becomes translated intofacilitating family play—not necessarily playing for their own personal enjoyment, but inorder to gain the love of their families and create a common language between familymembers. As previously mentioned, this is a common theme of women in leisure studies. My final example is the advertising campaign for Wii Fit. Wii Fit, an exercisegame played using the Nintendo Wii and a unique “balance board”, came out in May2008, and like other Nintendo Wii games has quickly begun to target more feminineaudiences, advertising in magazines such as Oprah Magazine and Good Housekeeping. The Wii Fit magazine advertisement (Figure 10) continues the aforementionedtheme of family togetherness, using a multigenerational and multigendered approach. Theadvertisement headline asks at the top of the page, “How will it move you?” Below thisquestion, are 20 separate bodies: the ad shows 20 different people, of different ages,different races, and different sexes, in different positions on the Wii balance board. All ofthe players are wearing a homogenizing white (though different articles of clothing), andeach shows movement: none appear to be standing still. Similar to the women’sadvertisement for Brain Age (Figure 6), the advertisement for Wii Fit never uses thephrase “video game”: it almost entirely focuses its pitch on fitness and movement. Thetext at the bottom of the advertisement explains: Step on to the Wii Balance Board and into a new kind of play. Use it with your Wii system to enjoy fun family activities like Hula Hoop, ski-jumping, and heading soccer balls, just to name a few. With over 40 different kinetic challenges, it will move you silly. And you can set goals and track your progress as you master the arts of yoga, aerobic activities, strength training, and balance games. Fitness has a fun side, but if you want to play, you gotta move.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 24

In many ways, this advertisement uses a combination of the two aforementioned videogame pitches for women. The advertisement promotes the productivity of fitness similarto how the Brain Age advertisement promoted mental health, and also suggests a kind ofconstant movement similar to what is implied with the “Do Something With YourNothing” campaign. At the same time, the cross-section of ages and sexes, and theimplication of family play in the text infers that (like other Wii games) this game willpromote family togetherness—it is play meant to construct a common ground and nullifygeneration gaps. In effect, the gendered nature of the message of Wii Fit lies in its slogan headline,“How will it move you?” While, obviously, this is referring in part to physical movement—evidenced by the moving bodies plastered over the advertisement, there is also anemotional movement that can be inferred here—in effect, it is asking when one’s familyspends more time playing together, how it might emotionally “move you.” Movementthus becomes a mode of play. On one hand the player is engaged in the constantmovement of a “do something with your nothing” paradigm. But, alternately, the playeris also being wrapped into the “movement” of emotional family bonding. In playing WiiFit, women seem almost automatically bound to these gendered modes of play.

Conclusion If advertising can be seen as a barometer of cultural trends, then magazineadvertising becomes a compelling and useful way to understand the gendering of videogame play. While more traditional video games are still advertised in problematic andsexist ways to masculine audiences, in recent years a more inclusive kind of video gameadvertising has begun to emerge in popular women’s magazines. To some extent, this is apositive change—broader advertising campaigns mean larger (and more sex-inclusive)audiences for video games. But the advertisements aimed at women often stillproblematize what it means for women to “play”—many of them promote productivity orfamily play more than cathartic experiences of play for the sake of play. The magazineadvertising that I reviewed showed a marginalizing attitude towards women in typicalvideo game advertisements, and an essentializing one in recent advertisementsspecifically aimed at feminine audiences. In essence, this may be evidence to a largerShira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 25

problem that exceeds to boundaries of video games—it pushes into issues of women’sleisure and how they “play”, with or without emerging technologies. There is no question that advertising video games to women in these magazines isa positive move—by broadening audiences and entitling more people (both men andwomen) to play, traditional boundaries are being broken. At the same time it is importantto survey how play is being marketed to women, and the implications implicit in thismarketing. While new games might open up new territories and dissolve boundaries, itbecomes important to consider new margins that might be counterpart to these kinds ofplay.Shira Chess: “A 36-24-36 Cerebrum” 26

Table 1: Game Informer and Play Magazine Advertising from July 2006 – June

2007 (12 Months)

Total ads Video Game Ads Video Game Ads w/ Females

GI 395 232 99Play 274 174 74

Table 2: Content Analysis of GI and Play Advertisements with women

Distinct Ads with Females in a Major Role: 47 % of ads

Ads where women display “licensed withdrawal” 64%Ads with women in revealing clothing 66%Ads with one or more female smiling 28%Ads with one or more female smaller than males 21%Ads with one or more female below or behind males 34%Ads where women use “feminine touch” 57%Ads where women were looking down or to the side 66%Ads where women shown as the player 1%

Table 3: Number of Video Game Ads in non-video game magazines from May 2006-